Ensoniq SQ1+

I have many synths, one being the SQ2 32-voice, so this review largely would be a carbon copy of my review of that synth. The only difference between the two is that the SQ2 has a 76 note board and this SQ1+ has 61 keys.
I bought this used in Dubuque in 2006 for only 80 bucks. To me, it is a steal and a great value in a 'classic' synth. I like the sounds, but primarily use it for pads and the orchestral lead sounds. I bought it because the SQ2 is simply too heavy and bulky onstage and I already have a controller (VFX-Sd and Roland E-09). I have mapped presets on it so depending on the song or board that I am triggering from, it provides the right sounds.
Please refer to my review of the SQ2 for the in depth review of the sounds and such as they are identical.

It has good MIDI and controller features totalling up to 8 zones on the board itself. While a little overkill for a 61-key keybed, it has it nonetheless.
I have RAM cards for it, and have identical copies of the internal sounds from the SQ2 in this thing, since that is what I bought it for.
It too has the small sequencer onboard, but do not really expect to get intricate on it, unless you get the SQX-70 memory upgrade to expand sequencer memory to 56,000+ notes. It is very easy to use, even with a 2-line x 16 character display. Ensoniq really knew their stuff even on this line (the SQ series) which they tagged as 'entry level'. There is not a tempo track though, but they were not in use at the time. The work-around was to simply create the different tempo parts of the song into different sequences, and then use the song mode to chain them together. Pretty nifty. I use this feature on 1 song in the VFX-SD and it works exactly the same way.
It too has 32-note plyphony. The SQ line came in different flavors as technology would allow at the time:

SQ1/SQ2/SQ-R - 21 note polyphony with 16 bit samples largely taken from the VFX line. The main difference is the amount of voices used to make a sound itself. The VFX used up to 6 voices in it sounds and the SQ line only used 3. While some may thing this is thin, it is not at all and actually works a bit better in my book. When comparing the dynamic range between the VFX-Sd and the SQ, the SQ has higher fidelity in its sounds. I will explain in detail below.
SQ1+ 32 Voice/SQ2 32 Voice/SQ-R 32 Voice - 32 note polyphony with a larger sample waveform list to choose from, including a 16 bit hi/lo piano sound. In 1992, it was a great sound but now is dwarfed and almost comical compared to the synths of today (my Roland E-09 blows it away and has the same grand piano sounds as their Juno line).

Before I got the SQ1+, I started taking the sounds I routinely used off of the SQ2 and tried to program them in the VFX-SD. One in particular, called Dyno Lead (my signature lead patch), has a great dynamic range and lots of animation on the SQ. When trying to put this sound in the VFX-SD it just did not sing like on the SQ. That is when I knew that I needed the SQ1+ if I was going to do my music like I did on my albums.
Some sounds, like the Mystic patch, are virtually identical as the Merlin patch on the VFX-SD. The bass sounds are also the same. The standout bad sounds to me would have been the drum sounds on the SQ. To me, there was no punch at all and no fidelity in them. Compare any drum kit on the SQ series to the Ballad kit on the VFX-Sd and you will know what I mean. I still use the Ballad kit from the VFX-SD in my shows today because the drum sounds are so good.
In my opinion, the Ensoniq line of synths were good at most styles of music except dance. I use them more for new age/classical music than anything, and hardly at all for dance.
The Roland E-09 is an arranger board that I have grown very close to. While a little quirky in the MIDI transmission department, I have presets on the VFX-SD and SQ1+ to receive note info from and that is when I use the pads and bass sounds on ballads and synth and bass on rock songs. Very useful to me and I certainly get the sound that I want from it.
The EFX are okay as well, and on some of the songs, I try to double what the Roland is doing by making another distored guitar sound on the SQ to receive note info from. Combined with the Roland patches, it works well in the sequence or live play (layering is the key).

Ensoniq was always known for their unreliability in synths (thank you VFX). I never had a problem with the SQ2 at all except a small hum from the transformer that is undetectable in recording or live. I have never had a problem with the SQ1+ to date. It does need the battery for memory to be replaced, but to me, that is trivial because I save everything on the RAM card and basically use it as a sound module. Sure, it requires changing the MIDI mode back to Multi (on the SQ2 because the battery has not died on the SQ1+ yet, it just warns me that it is low), but again, a small price to pay. They are made of metal and solid as a rock. I have gigged with the SQ2 without a backup and would with the SQ1 as well. I have 5 boards in my live rig though, because I need the layering from different sources.

Ensoniq is no more and has not been for a number of years. I still get upset thinking about it. They had the other companies by the balls with their sounds and features, and let E-mu (Creative) buy them out. Maybe there was a good reason; I do not know. But I tried to get support from E-Mu and they were less than accomodating. This is why I am trying to sell my PK-6. I will not support a company like that. I love Ensoniq and always will. There are two sources on the web available for fixing the Ensoniqs though as well as a users group on Yahoo. The user support base is quite good.

Overall, I would give the SQ1+ a 9, because I know what it does and what it does not do. I love Ensoniq stuff and always will. I am also the kind of person who knows the limitations of each synth I own and work around it to make it work. Unless we all have money for the OASYS from Korg (which in my opinion is great, but I would still keep the SQ and VFX-SD around for layering), we need to layer and treasure the classic gear.

I own:
Alesis QS6
E-Mu PK-6
Ensoniq SQ1+
Ensoniq SQ2 32-voice
(2) Ensoniq VFX-SD
Roland E-09
(2) Roland JV-880
Roland XP-60
Yamaha TG-33

Again, the SQ does exactly what I knew it would do. I own the SQ2 32-voice since it was new back in the early 90's so I have a jump on the programming and all. Within 20 minutes, I had taken the SQ1 apart, cleaned it, put it back together and transferred all the memory from the SQ2 over to it via the RAM card.
Great stuff and I am very fond of the Ensoniq gear.

ENSONIQ SQ! PLUS 32 VOICE

IT has very usable features.
one of the best on the market at the time it was created.
some people were using the M1, but the ensoniq has a better drumkit quality. and a better synth sounds. I still use this board on almost everyproduct i create till this day. I would never sell it.

the synth sounds are the most impressive like the mystic sound or the seduction sound pad. even the bishop sound patch is awesome if use with the right sequence.

I had this board brand new since 1992. nothing else said.

no. even tho I still need new keys. I never tried to deal with company.

definetly. or at least the rack model. it has sounds that not even the yamaha motif, korg triton, roland fantom s, or other boards has ever had or will. I have those other boards because you they are up to date but when I put these upcoming jazz and artist cd projects and you here certain sound patches on the record it might be the ensoniq

- Didn't think this thing had a software upgrade, so I'm assuming I'm using what came out of the box back in '92.
- Once you get the hang of it, pretty easy to use and program. Presets are pretty decent, including the piano, woodwinds, and organs. A standup bass just found its way into a jazzy piece I was doing last week

- 32 note polyphony, and I rarely ran out of voices... guess I didn't overtax it much
- I always thought the reverbs were really good, lots of parameters to edit and shape it... still better than a lot of the stuff I've since purchased. No delay which I hated at the time
- Sequencer is okay, though I started computer-based sequencing with it months after I got it, so I can't really judge it too well. Did have it dump on me once though. It's also the only keyboard-base sequencer I've tried to use
- Didn't really like the keyboard feel when I first bought it, though I grew accustomed to it after a while

- Even now with an Alesis QS6.1, Emu 2000, JP-8080, SH-32, I STILL find myself turning to it for certain acoustic or synth sounding voices. The "transwave" voices helped push it a bit beyond some of the ordinary ROMplers from the time. Don't know if a nice Roland Phantom or Korg Triton would blow it out of the water, but it's possible. I always thought the strings were cheezy, but since the low-fi mellotronic string sound became fashionable in the last half decade, I've even used the strings a bit more than I ever would have thought.

- Had the battery replaced a couple years ago... yes, you need a tech to do it, which is expensive (approx $30-40) and pain in the ass
- Also when I bought mine I was getting digital distortion in certain voices (bells and certain strings). Always assumed it was overdriving the effects, until 2 years after I bought it, I played another model in the store that DIDN'T do it at all. Cost me $200 to get some board replaced on it, but it's sounded fine ever since.

- Ensoniq doesn't/didn't have the best rep in the world, though I never dealt with them directly. Hopefully the EMU marriage has improved that situation

- Being that I could now find one for under $300, and the learning curve would be nil, I would consider buying another one if I lost my current model
- It was my first big keyboard purchase (after a CZ-1000 in '87) and it served me well for getting into sequencing, doing the occasional live gig, and even controlling new modules as I bought them.
- Bottom line, not a fabulous keyboard, but decent in its own right

The little display certainly is not the best. There are , really a few features hidden within this synth, but they are not always easy to access. It takes some time to get the full overview of what it can do.

32 voices, 8 track seq + add. 8 tracks in song mode, good effects. The intuitive ensoniq sequencers are IMO great. Very easy to scetch down your ideas on this one, but...should have had a few more tracks...The circuit can be unreliable, and therefore the lack of a floppydisk-drive is very annoying. I lost some of my sequences that way. It just locked up, and I had to turn it off and on again, all was gone. Seq, sounds, everything. It was working like a clock, of course. But everything was lost. Felt as if it was laughing me in the face. That's when I sold it.
I really liked it

This was my first synthesizer. By know I own several synths, both analogs, hybrids, and digitals. The SQ1+32v actually has a somewhat special sound. The strangeness that you can get out of it is right down loveable. The Piano also is great. Better than quite a few other, digital synths. I may just buy it again sometime...

It will crash on you, sooner or later, so you best be having a backup of your sounds and sequences.

Ensoniq's done for, remember. You could phone EMU though..

Special, genuine digital synthsounds, and good organs, piano, basoon..
Good seqencer, but no floppy, and no knobs for tweaking the sounds. And it tend to be somewhat unreliable.

The SQ-series of Ensoniq are quite easy in use. I even use the hardware sequencer to record, before dumping it to Cakewalk.

The one thing I miss, is some additional outputs. Only one stereo output and the effects are becoming a bit dodgy for today (august 2001). Also, there's no delay-fx. So adding this to a sound, always means an external processor. And with the stereo-output, you have either everything or nothing (or mono).

The sounds are quite decent, although there are quite a few that have digital jittering. I bought the SQ because of it's marvelous piano sound. I still love it.
I believe there are hidden sounds: try some presets and mute the voices that are on and turn on the voices that are off. For example, nr. 49, the flute... Swapping voices gave me a beautiful panflute!

When I bought this synth, I hade constant troubles. When playing for some time and then editing a bit fast, I ended up with a reset and a completely blank memory. It turned out to be a bad powersupply.
Sometimes, when doing when doing some rough editing in the sequencer while receiving some MIDI data, a reset occurs. Nothing bad, just a reset. No loss of memory.
Also, the battery went down after a few years. It is soldered to the main board, which makee it hard to replace it.

The company that ships the Ensoniq gear to The Netherlands really sucks. It took me 12 weeks to get the MIDI implementation chart, and it took 6 weeks to change the power supply...

This is a nice machine to start with, both because of the ease of use, the nice sounds and the rather good sequencer. It's an all-in-one. Looking back, I don't think there was such a cheap 'workstation' back in the days (1992).

Easy to use. All edit screens are easy once you get familiar with the controls and manual

See below comments on the specs. 61 keys, sequencer, etc.

I really like most of the sounds. OF course there are better synths on the market now, but for what I paid I think it's great for me. I like the Piano and organ sounds. Strings could be better. Percussion is good.

I dont know yet

I really like this SQ-1+. I use it in a classic rock band while I a mnot playing guitar. It's not made anymore but they are available through HC and EBay.

I have the original 1.0 version of SQ1+ keyboard. I could name at least 15 great presets, not counting the drum samples. Patch editing is very easy, once you learn how the voices are routed. There is a free patch editor by Erwin Petter, called KS-32 Editor. It is useful for storing the sequencer data, as well. The manual is easy to read. It covers everything except the MIDI implementation chart.

SQ1+ comes in either 21 or 32 voice polyphony. Neither is enough, in my opinion. However, one of the parameters for each voice is the PRIORITY. It is set to low, medium, or high, and it determines which voices are clipped when they exceed the polyphony. For example, you could set the drums and base to have the high priority in a sequence, so that they don't get clipped.
The built-in effects are average for their time (1991-1992). There are a few reverbs, chorus, flanger, phase, compression, and distortion. All voices can be sent through FX1, FX2, or DRY.
The keyboard action can be adjusted. The synthesizer is based on playback of pre-sampled waves, so expansion is not available. It does accept a sequencer expansion memory circuit, if you can find one. Without it, the sequencer can retain about 9,000 events. The synthesizer is not General MIDI. Every other MIDI function is implemented. The on-board (16 track) sequencer is very easy to use. Everything from quantitization to clock shifting to individual event editing is available. The sequencer is the best feature of this workstation.

Pianos and winds are realistic. Most of them are presets. The workstation is useful for late 80's - early 90's music: easy rock, country, and R&B. With good sound programming, the synthesizer can be used for anything else: Carpenters to AC/DC. The drawback is that all voices in a sequence are sent through the same effects. There is no aftertouch. However, parameter modulation can be applied with plenty of other sources: CV pedal, wheel, keyboard zones, MIDI, time, etc. I have used the synth for mostly recording. There are no features for realtime performance, other than velocity, wheel, and CV pedal.

The only unreliable thing is the sequencer memory. The keyboard can reboot itself in the middle of the song playback or recording. It also locks up sometimes. MIDI data filer is a must with this keyboard, especially on a gig.

I've had the SQ1+ for eight years, and only needed a battery change.

It was well worth the price. It is a good starter workstation.

Presets are strong with pianos, pads, strings, basses and drums being the strong points. Manuel is pretty good with a logical interface showing LED settings. Patch editing is pretty easy once you do a few.

It has 32 polyphony. Keyboard action is light and even across the board. Built in effects are good and easy to use. It uses sound cards that work well and add a lot of voices. It has Midi In-Out-Thru. The on-board sequencer is very good with just about every feature one would want to edit a track. Lots of possibilities. It is straight forward and well placed to the right.

Most sounds are good and it is a classic box for R&B, Rock, Dance, and the sounds are clean and effects are easy to program. The key velocity is predictable and has settings to adjust to your playing style.

Never had a problem with it crashing. It has worked perfect!

I only wrote a few times about the latest upgrades and they were same day response and accurate with advice. All the upgrades have been in one day and back the next.

It has been well worth what I paid. I choose this workstation because it had all of the features a personal recording keyboard would have. The sounds are tough to beat in this price range and it has been very reliable.

i have found very little use for the presets, small lcd is crap to look at for any length of time. double clicking is a pain and not always exactly what you expect it to be, in presets.

it has 16 voices, the effects like flanger and phaser can be controlled and programmed well. it accepts cards for sound storage which is too expensive. on board sequencer is ok, it does crash alot, seems to have stability problems agrravated by sysex dumps..

not very realistic compared to current synths, works fine for electric piano,piano,pads,strings live. onboard effects are usable, some are interesting with controllers. velocity sensitive yes

no, i have found it not very reliable. seems to have a case of 'forgetfulness' always bring midi data filer for backup, and end up using it.

i would buy another probably the 32 voice, or rack. like the phaser effects wish it had aftertouch,diskdrive,joystick synth has crashed many times and still does unstable